Jun 29, 2009

Things working up to the wedding day were chaotic. Mom forgot a lot of things, we forgot a lot of things so we ran around trying to replace the things we really needed. 2 days before the wedding we were told guest who had been telling us up to the weekend that they were not coming and they had known for 2 weeks! We also found out that MIL gave us incorrect names for some of our family members guests. Needless to say we scrapped the seating chart. We reserved certain tables for "important" people and let everyone else sit where they pleased.

Monday we had to go finalize the table arrangements at the venue which TBH was pointless. Every bit of input I had he informed me that "99% of brides prefer it this way..." (this way being the way he said we should do it) I finally said "Well we're having a Wednesday wedding I am clearly not 99% of brides!" Then MOH gets there for the rehearsal and decorating and 2 of the tables aren't even set-up. The staff of Twin Cedar Farms was polite and friendly but OMG it was like pulling teeth to get them to do anything. The "supervisor" as we're calling her just stood there and watched us run around trying to set things up. Occasionally she would point out where certain things were located. My mom said the candles were going out and she mentioned it to her and she said "Well the fan blows them out" and my mom was like "So relight them!" DH had to tell the guy who was supposed to be directing traffic before the ceremony to get on it because our guests were parking in the wrong place.

The owner went on at great length about how they NEVER set-up chairs for all the guest because half never sit... guess what EVERYONE of our guests sat! Glad I insisted on having chairs for everyone. He said the kids table was a bad idea because the kids never sit so I scrapped the idea but the kids all took over their own table anyway! We also hired servers and a bartender which for the most part did the job (almost to well because they were taking food away that people weren't finished with) but some of the guests said they weren't friendly. They did recommend we donate the food to a local food bank and even took it after the reception was over.

Our photographer Valerie Foley was AMAZING! Despite us being late she was calm and keeping me calm. We lost an hour of photography time but she made up for it. Everyone had great things to say about her and couldn't believe how many pictures she got. I'm so excited to see them! She said right now is her busy time (obviously with it being June) but she will have them up in about 2 weeks. The pictures I have put up came from my mom and brother who both did a great job not only taking pictures but making and setting up the food. They took TONS! And my brother digitally recorded the whole ceremony. I don't even have ALL the pictures! So more to come eventually!

WOW...sorry to hear that several things didn't go according to plan, but as long as the overall wedding day was a joyous occasion that you were able to spend with friends and family (and with your new husband of course), then I guess in the end that's all that really matters!! I love the horse drawn carriage...I'm sooo jealous!! You know I'm glad we couldn't afford a wedding planner or anything cause even though I'm having to do everything by myself, I would rather have it that way then pay people to do their job and then they act as if they can tell you what you should and shouldn't do or have at YOUR own wedding....but you're the one that's paying THEM to do their job and they act as if it's a burden to them just to do what they're even getting paid to do in the first place lol!! Again, I'm sorry that not everything went as smoothly as you had hoped, but it looks like you still had a very beautiful wedding in the end and after hearing about some of these behind the scenes details, I'm very glad that I've just decided to take charge of everything myself lol!! Will it be more work and more stress on me...yes of course, but at least I know everything will get done exactly how I want it to (with the help of friends and family too of course)!! Congrats to you and your new husband!! ;-)